Customized Templates are suitable for many businesses.
Read Why:
Website Templates Pros & Cons

"Pros" - Advantages of Website Templates

• Lets you see the main style and layout you prefer.
  A website template lets you see what the finished website could look like, complete with all types of standard pages which can be left almost as is, except for images and content added replacing the sample text, or as a clear starting point or framework on which to customize and build.
• Easy to customize.
  If you are imaginative, you can work with a good web developer to help visualize inexpensive modifications to the template's basic "look", or even to its layout to achieve a unique appearance. A good website template can be customized to match your tastes and requirements by changing some of the layout, colors, background, pictures and text so that it ends up looking unique and different from the original you buy. If you can make a few changes to the size of columns and headers, borders, background, colors, textures and pictures, your site can come out looking unusual and differentiated. It is the style, color, images, texture and content wording "trade dress" which your customers notice, and you wish to emphasize.
• Better Cleaner Code easier to modify and maintain.
  Because most new websites go through several changes and iterations to meet your tastes and by asking others and testing content copy against web strategy, it is important the original coding be clean , organized, tested and improved so your web developer-designer can focus on your improvements and changes without having to deal with clunky first try type web program coding. Note that many website templates from some companies are not well written nor easy to maintain, so discuss with your web developer who has much experience in selecting the best templates to use.
• Cost. A better quality professionally-designed website template is about $30 to $75 for a moderate to fairly fancy website of about 7 to 18 pages. The medium to higher priced templates come with impressive merchandise or picture galleries, slideshows, flash and/or shopping product pages. The same level of custom website from "scratch" could easily run up to $3000 to $5000. But realistically, to install your required content text and pictures changes will likely require about $300 to $700 on such templates just to "populate" them, crop pictures and add metatags and alt tags. If you decide to seriously modify a template, figure on roughly twice that much or more. Even then you still end up around half or less of the custom site, and your template site is more maintainable. This is very important if you plan much market and ad testing resulting in updates. Free templates are usually very limited in design, functionality and quality of code, and reputable web template companies often provide support and useful "snippets" for your template that you would not likely get with a free template.
• Speed.
  A template-based website as above requires about 20 to 50% of the time and cost of a custom site, provided you are ready and quick with the content and high definition pictures for customization of your website template to your tastes. This can save weeks or even months, depending on its complexity, compared to to design and build of a custom website. If you do very little customization and your images and text content are ready to go, a template usually takes only a few days to two weeks to complete.
• Choice.
  There are many designs from which to choose and developer programs to fit your needs. Somewhere, if you take time, there is a template close to your needs. Searching for templates is educational and gives you ideas for features and layout you might need and want. Ask your web designer for the best templates, because program code quality varies.
• Attractiveness. Professionally designed templates are created by experts who have tested the sites with the public, and the look has passed salability test. The better modern look of current templates attracts visitors to your site. Better template companies give you access to topnotch design quality. When you browse around, you will find that some website templates are of a higher quality than others. Ignore aggressive sales pitches on some sites. Rely on an experienced web designer-developer to help you choose a template that has better program code design, for cheaper easier customization and lower maintenance costs.
  Most templates can be customized to your needs. Don't focus only on a type that looks oriented to your line of business. You can choose an entertainment template, for example, for a service and customize it to your business.

• Functionality.
  Professionally designed website templates come with not only standard pages like 'home', 'about', 'products', and 'contact', but better or more expensive website templates offer add-on features such as a showcase or photo gallery, or with community, networking or communications features like a blog, newsletter or bulletin board. More complex website templates and e-commerce websites offer features like catalog pages, credit card processing, online ordering and forums or live chat. Check with your web developer to be sure your hosting company has backend server support for these features to properly function.
• Navigation.
  The advantages of professionally designed web templates include quality, consistent-tested navigation throughout the site. Your visitors can easily see where they are and where to go, and how to return to pages they like. Before buying a template, you can experience how visitors will navigate around your site in a comfortable easy standard manner. It is important to not confuse visitors with unusual non-standard navigation. A big advantage to a more standardized layout and navigation is that average visitors feel comfortable, not confused, and can more rapidly find what they want.

"Cons" - Disadvantages of Website Templates

The disadvantages of templates are usually less than the advantages, unless you have extreme requirements or demand a very unusual (read "expensive" and "confusing") style and look requiring much customization The not bad disadvantages are:

• Not entirely unique.
  If you do not customize the template, it may look like some other users of the template. But different colors, pictures and text can make the appearance so different that average visitors will almost never notice that fact, also because there are now so many templates and websites, no one is likely to visit or recognize the few very similar. For the few who might notice, you can simply customize the template a bit more, and make important changes necessary to match your company's style and trade dress and personality, anyway.
• Specific software required for customization.
  Most website templates are relatively easy to customize, edit and update, but require some knowledge of programming, photo-editing and website-building tools. It is nearly always advisable to use a web developer with the software and skills to customize and update your website. We believe it is a bad idea to use Frontpage or any other WYSIWYG editor for updates, including "site builder" page generators. Well designed templates are usually rapidly messed up by such editors, which will cost you greatly when you really need updates by a professional who has to wade through unnecessary cluttered "generator" code.
• Customization Limits
  There are limits to customization of most templates. The basic structure, navigation and basic layout of where tables and columns are will typically remain. You can change the sizes of those, and colors and texture, and even sometimes change the buttons and image handling. Be sure If you have a high volume of content that you choose a template with adequate space for text. Too much text on a page intended to be summary or brief may change the look of the layout and stretch it. Plan the text positioning careful and match the template to your requirements as possible, but talk to your web designer-developer.
• Special skills for Image optimization and Flash.
  Optimizing images for web pages requires some special skills and software which better web developers have. This helps to keep images looking "right" while having your pages load quickly. Don't plan to do it yourself if you don't have these skills and photo-editing software for image optimization. For templates, plan the pictures and be sure your originals are sharp and high definition. Ask your web developer what they need so you save time and money. Flash animations slow your website and can not be modified in form, so reduce or avoid Flash usage, or be sure the presentation matches your business and key words shown in the Flash.
• You are responsible for Search engine optimization
  Website Templates are an outline and shell of a site. Content must be inserted and optimized to attract search engines. You do this by careful text and keyword selection, not overusing main words and phrases, but optimally about 5 times per page. Search engines look for words, not pictures, Flash or animations. A template which heavily uses graphics and Flash animation may look great but take a long time to load, nor will it draw search engines. Be careful to balance your flashiness with good content, or your site may not rank well in search engine rankings.
  
  Choose keywords while writing content that describe benefits and features of your products or services, broken down by type of targeted customer. Your web designer can help you with various tags and methods to help you rank better in categories of search engines. Content is the most important part of your website, so you should spend time to get it right, or list ideas and words and turn it over to a professional content writer.
  
  Clearly, the advantages of website templates outweigh the disadvantages. So, choose a web template and get your website going! BG Design has customized many templates and can do an excellent job for you. Numerous clients opted for highly customized website templates and the result is both great looking sites and clean maintainable and standards validated browser compatible code.